Wanted: Drug-Free Workers

Amphetamine, Pain-Killer Use Is Hiring Hurdle in Appalachia's Oil-and-Gas Boom

By

Kris Maher

Jan. 8, 2013 6:44 p.m. ET

CARNEGIE, Pa.—Dawn Fuchs's trucking and environmental-cleanup business is thriving, thanks mostly to a boom in natural-gas drilling in western Pennsylvania. But she faces an unexpected hurdle to growth: More job applicants are failing drug tests.

"It's getting harder and harder to find clean applicants," said Ms. Fuchs, chief executive of Weavertown Environmental Group. About 7% of Weavertown's applicants have been turned...